Shenzhen Blog

Master class – Design seminar on What’s Next?

Winy Maas Prof. Ir. Ing FRIBA HAIA (1959, Schijndel, The Netherlands) is an architect, urban designer and landscape architect and one of the co-founding directors of the globally operating architecture and urban planning firm MVRDV, based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, known for projects such as the Expo 2000, the vision for greater Paris, Grand Paris Plus Petit, the Market Hall in Rotterdam, the Crystal Houses in Amsterdam, and more recently the Seoullo7017 Skygarden in Seoul.

He is furthermore professor at and director of The Why Factory, a research institute for the future city, he founded in 2008 at TU Delft. He is currently Visiting Professor at GSAPP Columbia, New York, and IIT Chicago and has been at Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, the University of Hong Kong, ETH Zurich, Berlage Institute, MIT, Ohio State and Yale University. In addition, he designs stage sets, objects and was the curator of Indesem 2007. He curates exhibitions, lectures throughout the world and takes part in international juries.

Introduction of MVRDV

These have resulted in a range of building types, urban plans, and conceptual visions, and extends to research, publications, and exhibitions. Built projects include the Villa VPRO, redefining the workspace for a public broadcasting network, the stacked Dutch landscapes of the Netherlands Pavilion for the World EXPO 2000 in Hannover and Rotterdam Markthal, a combination of food, housing, and retail that changed the economic perspective of Rotterdam.

Work, Play, Live, MVRDV wants to revolutionize every aspect of human life. The portfolio ranges from objects to social and high-end housing; to boutiques and large-scale retail; to offices and business parks; to urban parks and landscapes; to follies, museums, libraries and performing art centers. MVRDV is also working on large-scale urban masterplans in Glasgow, Bordeaux, Caen, and Oslo. Larger scale visions are undergoing for the future of greater Paris and doubling in size of the Dutch new town Almere in 2030.

Selected Projects

Expo 2000, Hanover World Expo Dutch Pavillion

Book Mountain

Tianjin Binhai Library

Crystal house, Amsterdam

Depot Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

What’s Next?

From the urgencies seen in contemporary societies and urban situations, it is obvious that it is time to begin thinking about our cities in completely new ways. The urban environment has become fundamentally different in many aspects, but we are still trying to physically define it in the same way as before. There is a need to find ways of bringing together these two extremities – the individual and the collective – from both ends and both conceptually and practically, into possible constructions.

What’s Next for Architecture and Urbanism? How to pursue collective aspirations instead of cultivating individual dreams is just one of the questions that feed the visionary mind.

Lecture of Qianhai Design Master

Lecturer: Winy Maas

Topic: What’s Next?

Host:Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone.